In case you didn’t notice, I took last week off from blogging, both reading and writing. I responded to a couple of comments here to avoid being discourteous. Other than that, I put myself on a strict no-blog diet.
Twyla Tharp‘s book The Creative Habit (via 43 Folders) inspired me to swear off blogs for a week. Her examples of voluntary sacrifices that can foster creativity made it clear that blogs were a perfect choice for me.
My conscience had been nagging me that blogging had become an unbalanced part of my life. My daughters often came to me as I sat on the couch reading blogs and asked to read a book or play with me. I (irritated by the distraction) would brush them aside, “Not now. I’m reading. Maybe later?”
How fucking backwards! My time with my daughters is slipping away one minute at a time, and I feel obligated to get my feed reader down to zero unread posts? That is the very definition of having my priorities upside down.
Blogging is great. I love that people the world over are having conversations. I have let that conversation with relative strangers distract from my relationship with the people closest to me. There have been far too many days where I came home from work and spent no meaningful time with my family because I was blogging.
Blogging also provides an easy way to procrastinate while feeling like I’m accomplishing something. I do my duty to stay an informed citizen by reading blogs while I put off all those projects that intimidated me too much to even start them. The blogosphere kindly provided a never ending supply of new blog posts to read. Meanwhile, I left important things undone.
So I took the week off from blogging. I also took a week off from work and spent my time at home. So what did I do with all that time? I read the newspaper. I caught up on my reading (books). I played with the girls. I watched movies. I did a few chores. We took field trips to museums and state parks. I worked on long neglected projects. I relaxed. I remembered what it was like to live in a world without blogs.
I noticed something. The non-blog stuff that I read or watched was well thought out and lucidly presented. I felt rewarded for my time spent with them. I imagine the creators put their creations through at least two drafts before giving me the finished product. Let’s face it. With occasional exceptions, a lot of the blog world barely makes it through one draft. It’s a world full of rough drafts that we dash off and send out with a spellcheck (maybe) and a smile. It’s easy to waste time on this noisy channel trying to separate out the valuable from the dross.
Perhaps I am judging the blogging world too harshly. It is more like a conversation with friends than reading a book or watching a movie. Even so, I think I should spend less time chatting with friends and more time with my girls while they’re still interested in spending time with dear ol’ Dad, more time romancing my wife, and more time accomplishing something meaningful to me.
So now what?
I’ll make a deal with you blog-o-sphere: I’ll keep reading in moderation and put my posts through at least two drafts when it’s appropriate (I sat on this post all week), if you’ll forgive me for not reading everything that comes my way. Once I can read all my blogs in about 30–45 minutes a day, I’m done. Any new kid on the block who has a chip on his shoulder and something to prove will have to bump someone else off my reading list.
Deal?
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The reason the image is so wide is because I have dual widescreen monitors at work. (Don’t hate me because of my screen space.)
This also has the salutary side effect of almost completely obfuscating the use of my computer. I get boyish delight at the thought of a coworker’s befuddled look when they sit down down to my computer and grope around for their precious Start menu. Tee hee.
]]>Not only does each item on my task list threaten to freak me out, the whole assemblage drives me to fiddle with addictive games and madness. I take one look at my task list and my eyes glaze over: I don’t know where to start.
The obvious strategy is to start at the top. You know that and I know that, but my gut reactions don’t. They tell me to head for the life rafts and abandon all hope. “The list is too long!”
I have a homebrew task management system (cobbled together using big ass text files, Bash scripting, and Vim). I recently programmed it to be able to give me exactly one task at a time.
The effect is magical.
My task list has lost its power to intimidate. “Sure, I have 15 minutes to create that spreadsheet. Easy-peasy!” I find myself ripping through my tasks so fast that I don’t know what to do with all the time left over.
Multitasking is a moral weakness. One task at a time. One. Task.
]]>Every year, I go through the same self-deceiving charade of making resolutions as if my efforts were going to last past President’s Day (Martin Luther King Day, maybe). Resolutions did nothing more than make me feel crumby for failing at my self-appointed goals. In the ultimate end, I will probably still end up a little chubby, a little disorganized, a little poor, and a lot dead regardless of how many good intentions I gather up on the doorstep of another year. I’d rather die a little happier for not having made so many ineffectual and guilting New Year’s resolutions.
This doesn’t mean that I won’t set goals, of course, but there is a better way.
So here’s to some healthy perspective (and knowing when it’s better not to even try)! Oh, and I wish you all the best on your resolutions! 
That’s what my computer desktop looks like at work. I’m going for a simple aesthetic, something that strips everything down to its barest, functional essential. No distractions from what I want to do. Yet my desktop isn’t boring. It cheers me up every time I see it.
To accomplish this I:
Using my computer used to feel like treading water in a polluted pool. That wasn’t very conducive to reaching the flow state. Now I feel like I’m swimming in a clear stream.
]]>An excellent introduction to the central philosophy behind Getting Things Done from the man himself. GTD (as it’s known to the dark cult that surrounds it) is the art of stress free productivity.
(via lifehacker)
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